Benjamin Philips of Hobbs Hill Wood School in Hemel Hempstead came up with the winning entry for the Queen's new apple variety: Sweet Lillibet.

He and his class spent the day at HRI East Malling on November 30 as part of their prize in a specially designed itinerary which included orchard and cold-store visits, interactive sessions on varieties and pests and disease.

'Quite apart from being enjoyable, the day has been an educational highlight,' said Richard Haynes, headteacher at the school.

The competition attracted more than 1,000 entries from schoolchildren around the country. A tree of the new variety will be planted at the winners' school and he and his classmates will receive free apples for the next six months. Five runners up also won free apples for their classes for six months.

'Apart from helping to highlight English apples in Somerfield's stores, this competition attracted great interest from schoolchildren across the country and increased their knowledge of English apples,' said EA&P's Adrian Barlow. 'This is extremely important as they are the consumers of the future.' Sweet Lillibet was discovered by Matt Dahlmans and provided for the competition by FP Matthews Ltd.

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